1st Edition
Health, Disease and Society A Critical Medical Geography
Originally published in 1987 this textbook is a comprehensive introduction to the rapidly developing field of medical geography. It illustrates the ideas, methods and debates that inform contemporary approaches to the subject, demonstrating the potential of a social and environmental approach to illness and health. The central theme is the need to reject an exclusively biological approach to health. The authors examine both the geography of health care and outline a selection of health service planning initiatives in both North America and Europe.
Biography
Kelvyn Jones is Emeritus Professor Quantitative Geography at the University of Bristol, UK. He focuses on the quantitative modelling of social science data with complex structure especially in relation to change and health outcomes. He has been awarded Fellowships of the British Academy, the Learned Society of Wales, and the Academy of the Social Sciences. Graham Moon is Emeritus Professor of Health Geography at the University of Southampton, UK. His research focusses on place effects on health-related behaviours, particularly smoking and diet, on mental health care and on small area estimation. He has also published on histories of health geography. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health.
‘This book offers a clear and accessible guide to the content and nature of medical geography, but more uniquely provides a much needed critique of some of the assumptions and methods which underlie the research in this field.’ Sarah Harvey, Journal of Social Policy.
‘In its emphasis on the social and environmental perspective to health this provides a valuable counter-point to technological medicine, the biological approach to health and the anthropocentric viewpoint of the clinical and laboratory approaches of most medical scientists. ‘ G. Melvyn Howe, The Geographical Journal.
